art :: peacock

i've been experimenting with a new series of animal illustrations in the last couple of months ... here is the 1st in the series titled "peacock" ... it started off with me digging up a peacock design i had done years ago ... i started tinkering with the design, adding textures and redrawing most of it ... here is the end result ... 

"peacock"

art review: ai weiwei

summer has come and gone and my hiatus has come to an end ... i have collected lots of inspirations and wonderful memories this summer and i can't wait to begin the creative process again ... firstly before i post some new works, i want to share my experience a few weeks ago at ai weiwei's "according to what?" exhibition at the art gallery of ontario

ai weiwei is a chinese contemporary artist who is extremely outspoken especially after the sichuan earthquake of 2008 where thousands died ... he is currently not allowed to travel outside china due to his political activism

what i found interesting and discovered through a video interview they were playing is that most of the art aren't actually made by himself ... ai weiwei explains that he comes up with the ideas and then his team helps him make the ideas into reality ... seeing as most of his works are massive labour intensive undertakings, i can understand why ... also, his art seems to be more about the political message itself than the execution (unlike most other art genres) ... 

the "moon chest"(below left) features 7 wooden chests with circular openings ... they are positioned such a way that as you walk through the installation, you experience the many different phases of the moon ... this is one of the more visually pleasing pieces of the exhibition

snake ceiling, 2009

moon chest, 2008

the "snake ceiling" (above right) is a ceiling installation made with backpacks ... this is an inspiration from the approximately 5,000 children who perished from the sichuan earthquake 

dropping a han dynasty urn, 1995/2009

han dynasty vases from 2,000 years ago are featured in the photographs above and the piece below ... ai weiwei tries to portray the idea of challenging traditional beliefs for the development of new ideas ... yet the coloured vases show that a new modern layer cannot remove the original past that still exists below 

coloured vases, 2007-2010

rebar from collapsed sichua schools in the aftermath of the earthquake were used for the installation below

straight, 2008-2012

when most of us travel the world and visit tourist attractions, we take tons of photos sometimes just of the symbol and sometimes posing in front of it ... below are 3 examples of a series of photographs that ai weiwei takes in the same situation ... what do you think he is trying to say?

art: bubblegum

i was driving into work this week and all of a sudden an image flashed across my mind ... remember that big bubblegum you blew when you were a kid?  those big fat sweet juicy ones like bubblicious or hubba bubba ... inevitably one will be so big that it pops and sticks all over your face ...

i wanted to capture that moment ... here it is ... my latest piece is called "bubblegum"

bubblegum

these were the flavours i remember the most ... what about you?

art: captain ilias

i just finished this illustration for my son's room ... his room has a nautical theme with a blue and red colour scheme ... he had a big smile on his face when i showed him ... made my day!

Captain Ilias

coming up the gangplank are our 3 newest passengers with their luggage ... mr. crab ... mr. clownfish ... mr.starfish ... i'm really happy with how this one turned out ... feels sunny and warm ... can almost smell the fresh ocean air ... 

art: hung out to dry

my latest piece titled "hung out to dry" was inspired by my recent trip to greece ... it was april and the weather enabled us to hang our laundry outside ... it was so windy that within an hour everything was dried ... it brought back memories of when i was little growing up in a hot climate which allowed us to hang the laundry on a line outside the window of a condo 25 floors above ground all year round ... i still chuckle when i remember back to times when a sock or a shirt would slip from our hands and land on someone else's laundry line floors below ... you would have to count backwards and downwards and try to figure out which apartment it was that you should call on to retrieve your clothes ....

this illustration was overlaid onto a photograph i took in greece ...

"hung out to dry"

art: urban cinderella

this new piece titled "urban cinderella" is my modern take on the classic fairytale ... i overlaid my digital illustration onto a photograph i took of an alleyway ... i grew up reading fairytales and wonderful tales from writers like roald dahl ... some things will never change = ) .... enjoy!

urban cinderella

"cindy lost her shoe again"

art: the duck piper

this piece is titled "the duck piper" ... this is one of my original digital painting overlaid over a digitally enhanced photograph that i took while taking a walk in my neighbourhood ... 

"the duck piper's melodic quacking is sweet music to her loyal ducklings."

the duck piper

art: green honeydew boy

i'm so excited that i finally finished "green honeydew boy" ... it's taken me a few weeks here and there to get it exactly right ... he was originally wearing a purple shirt but my son wanted green and i think he was right on ...

Green Honeydew Boy

"far from the madding crowd ... honeydew boy on top of his honeygloo"

inspiration: snow globes

who doesn't love snow globes? ... it's one of those things that you never grow out of ... when i come across one at the disney store, i'm always tempted to pick one up for "the kids" for a future birthday or x'mas gift ... and then i remind myself that if i did get it, it really would be for myself ... ha!

there you have it ... the inspiration (along with the winter weather) for the following digital painting that i created at the beginning of winter  ... it is not obviously titled "snow globe" ... ok it is = )

surprisingly i don't own any snow globes but here are some cool and interesting ones:

snow globe

Steamboat Willie Snowglobe by Disney

The No Globe by Dorothy

DIY Tutorials by GreyLikesWedding.com

welcome to the world of green honeydew

so i have finally gotten my act together and started a blog ... i have also decided to combine all my interests and love and put them all in one place ... it was getting too much to try to keep my different interests separate ... i was beginning to feel like i had an identity crisis ... rather than creating a separate blog for my artwork, photography and jewelry ... this will be a one-stop shop ... also makes it so much easier to manage ... and means i will have more stuff posted on a regular basis

this past week i've been experimenting with fine art pendants and am happy to say that I have now started offering them in one of my etsy stores (Heather Genevieve Designs)

here is an example of how one of them turned out ... this one is from one of my digital paintings titled "Green Honeydew Girl"